Song of the Moon
by diannalykae
Summary: Dianna used to be called Lilith back in the day when she lived in the gypsy camp. But now she is on the hunt for a way to get out. Her path ends up crossing with Erik, a man she used to know before he ran away at a young age.
1. Chapter 1 and 2

[quote]

karadarkrose wrote:

Chapter One

Dianna was not sure what could bring her out into the cold air of Paris that night. There was danger in the air; she heard a piercing howl that split the night. She pulled her tattered shawl tighter around her shoulders. Spring was coming soon, but right now winter still had a grip. She shuddered; there was a vârcolac out tonight. But it was more than just that.

Dianna looked in the direction of the Opera House, there was a bright orange light coming from its direction. There also seemed to be some people running down the road coming from there. Most were dressed in their finest; they were too scared to notice that they were now in some of the worst part of town. Dianna grabbed an old woman by the arm before she could get by her. The old lady spun around to face her with a look of terror in her eyes.

"Let go of me!" She screamed, Dianna's grasp just tightened on the woman's arm,

"Its ok lady," Dianna said with a voice as soft as silk. "I just want to know what is going on."

"That mad ghost, he burned the Opera House down!" she tried again to pull away from her, this time Dianna let her go, almost causing the old woman to fall.

Dianna had not even been in Paris that long. She was a gypsy runaway, this just happened to be the place she chose to make her new start. She was only the second to get away from this caravan. It had been many years before she dared to get away that a young masked boy had run off after killing the caravan leader. Dianna was not sad to hear about the man's death, but she was sad that the boy had left; he had saved her from the man called Javert.

She had to wonder sometimes what had become of him. He had the most brilliant mind. She had seen after he had saved her, the inside of his tent. He had all sorts of the oddest things that he had made himself. At the moment she could not even recall his name, though he had told her with much hesitation.

Chapter Two

She was only eleven, but she had started dancing for money, the rest of the girls said that she was good enough to start working. Sometimes the masked boy would even play while they danced; it was the only time she enjoyed dancing. She would close her eyes and moved to his magical music. Dianna was not even her real name, the one her mother had given her. At this time in her life she was known as Lilith.

Many men had made comments about her beauty. She was taller than most of the girls her age. Hair as dark as the raven's wings, and her eyes that were a dark purple, she had gotten those from her grandmother. She dressed in the typical garb of the gypsy dancer. After the dancing was done, Lilith had gone into the dark woods near the camp to be alone for a while.

She was resting against a tree when Javert came upon her. Lilith could smell the rank scent of liquor on his breath; it made her gag, as he got closer. She had tried to run, but he caught her by the arm before she had a chance to get far and pulled her to him.

He was a large man, not so much tall, but large in girth. She was very surprised that he came after her that night. She was told more than once his preference ran in the other direction. But she guessed that he had taken all he could from then and was not yet ready to try the only boy he had not yet taken.

Of course Lilith was never very sure what the man was doing with them in the first place. He was not born a gypsy after all. She figured it was no more than the fact he was a good showman.

"Well my beauty, I think I might take you as my new pet," he breathed right in her face.

Lilith was about to scream when she saw the masked boy creeping up behind the filth that was holding her arm. He signaled her to be silent as she saw him pulling something from his belt. He pressed the sharp point of a knife against their leader's back.

"Let her go Javert," he hissed in the man's ear.

The sudden feeling of the knife point against his back and the man's voice caused Javert to release her arm. She did not run though, she wanted to see what the boy was going to do with him. But much to her disappointment, he did not kill him yet. He told the man to go back to camp, and that he did not want to see him near her or any of the girls again.

"You should have killed him," she said trying to brush herself off as best she could.

He seemed surprised that she was not running away right now. Most of the others in the camp never stayed around him this long. But for some reason she was not afraid of him, even with that mask that covered almost all of his face.

"Why are you not running from me?" he asked finally. "Don't I scare you like the rest?"

She just shook her head as she sat down on a tree stump that she had found. The girl was more fascinated by him then scared, most of all by his eyes. They seemed to glow, even this far from the camp fire.

"Why would I be? You have never done anything to me," she said still watching him as he came closer. "I don't even know your name, if you have one."

He seemed a bit nervous at that moment. She had never heard anyone call him by his name, they just called him things like "living corpse" or worse. She did not pay any head to these names; he was just another boy as far as she could tell.

"It's not used much anymore," he said with a bit of a laugh. "If you must know, it is Erik."

"Erik…" she repeated trying to make sure she would never forget the name of the one who saved her.

He bowed with a bit of a flourish that made Lilith laugh. He seemed nice to her, she was not scared in the least. She was not even curious about what might lay under that mask. He asked to take her to his tent to check her over to make sure that the lady was not hurt.

Lilith jumped off of the stump and hugged Erik. He stood stiff until she let him go again. She could not understand why a simple hug seemed to cause such a reaction. He shook his head a bit and told her to follow him back to his tent.

She did not hesitate to do as he asked. This would be the first and only time a girl would go into Erik's tent. It was only a couple of weeks later that Erik did kill Javert and ran away. Lilith found herself crying when she found out he was gone. The rest of the gypsy found her now crazed and would not come to near her after that. After all, why would anyone care about the welfare of the living corpse?


	2. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Suddenly coming out of her memories, she noticed the figure of a man stumbling towards her direction. He was dressed in a fine suit, like most of the men coming from the direction of the Opera House, as well as a cloak and a wide brimmed hat. This one looked a lot worse off than the rest, he looked very injured.

He looked like he might have been mulled by a vârcolac itself. He might just have well been for all the injuries he had. But then when he lifted his head, she could see what lay hidden by his hat. His was corpse-like with no nose; sunken eyes and cheeks; white, parchment-like skin.

It was the masked man that had run away from the camp so many years ago. Though his mask was no longer hiding his face. And by the looks, he must have worn a wig as well all those years. She did recognize those eyes all too well.

"Erik!" She exclaimed as he reached out to her.

"Help me…" he managed to get out before collapsing.

"Oh god, what has happened to you?" she asked, not really expecting an answer seeing as he was out cold lying in the street in front of her.

He was heavier than he looked, but somehow she managed to drag him the sort distance back to her meager flat. Dianna could not remember how she managed to get him into her bed.

She had to remove his jacket, shirt, tie, and vest, to get a look at his wounds. Save for the old, and what would be new, scars he was not really too bad to look at.

She then began to look over his wounds, the worst of that was on his right shoulder. Something seemed to have taken a chunk out of him. She muttered a prayer when she realized the vârcolac really had gotten to him.

She had a choice to make right then. He really should die right then by her hand. He would not be a true danger until the next moon, right now he was weak. It would be the best thing for everyone. But how could she kill him after he had saved her those many years ago.

He groaned a little in his sleep. By his color he looked to have a fever. Dianna went into the washroom and grabbed a cloth, wetting it with cold water. She went back to Erik and placed it on his head.

She then went back to the washroom to get another rag, this time wet with warm water to clean the rest of the wounds. She knew why the one on his shoulder looked almost healed all together all ready. Soon the rest would do the same, save for the very old marks and his face of course being that he was born with that.

He was talking in his sleep as she sat down in a chair next to the bed to watch over him.

"Christine…" he muttered.

"No Erik, it's Lilith," she said not noticing that he was not really speaking to her.

His eyes opened and he looked over at her. The look in his eyes caused her to shiver a little. He studied her for a moment before speaking again.

"Lilith?" he questioned.

She nodded and pulled her hair back, like it was tied up. That was the look he was most likely to recognize. Dianna noticed a flash of recognition cross his eyes. Not much had changed about her, save for the fact she was wearing rags, and living in a very modest flat.

Erik tried to sit up, but he was still weak. Dianna did her best to help and placed the pillow behind his back. She did not dare to tell him about his shoulder at the moment. It would be hard for him to believe what she was telling him.

"I guess this will make us even," she said as he coughed a little.

She saw him smile a little. It was then he realized that he did not have his mask anymore. He almost freaked out in front of her, but stopped when he figured out that she had not even mentioned it since she found him out in the street.

That and she placed a hand gently on his shoulder, trying to make him see it was alright. Her touch almost sent a jolt through him; he was still not used to much human contact, let alone female.

"Still not afraid?" he asked looking down at his hands that were twisting the edge of the blanket trying to keep himself from pushing her hand off of him.

She slowly removed her hand and placed them both in her lap and smiled at him a little. There was a sense of tension in the air, and her eyes looked weary.

"Again, you have never harmed me," she reminded him. "Your face holds no horror for me, now or ever."

He just might though, soon, if she did not tell him the truth. There was something that they could do, but it would take time. And they only had about a month. She was just glad that he would heal fast; they would need to be on the move soon.

"In a couple of days we have to leave," Dianna said leaning back in the chair and closing her eyes.

"Why?" he asked watching her.

"You have been bitten," she started to explain. "Bitten by a vârcolac."


	3. Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

Erik could hardly believe what the woman was telling him. He remembered stories of the vârcolac from when he was in the camp. He had to listen from a distance so the others did not notice him there. They were all scared of him, save for the one who sat with him now.

He remembered blacking out for some time when he got out of the Opera House cellars. That must have been when it had gotten him. It was a sharp pain in his shoulder that had woken him, and he remembered seeing a large dog like creature running as he tried to stand up. He had not come across the cure for this in the old gypsy woman's tent that he used to visit.

But this woman seemed to know what they needed to do. He did not know if he wanted to follow her or not. Maybe it would be best if she just killed him now. After all he had lost everything that night, his music, and the woman he had loved with everything he had.

"Something troubles you." she was now looking right at him.

"I lost everything tonight," he admitted.

She was not sure what he was speaking of. It could be the life he had known, seeing as he had been bitten. No, they might still be able to fix that if they moved fast enough. It could be his mask, that could not be it either. She could go back along his path and find it or get a new one. Dianna was very confused at the moment.

"You look a tad confused," Erik pointed out with a sharp laugh. "You don't have any idea of what I mean I am guessing."

She nodded; he had hit the nail on the head. He was always good about figuring out what people were thinking. Sometimes it was almost like he could read minds. But then most human minds were not that complicated.

"I am the reason the Opera House is burning," he said in a flat dry voice.

Dianna looked at him with some surprise. Music was one thing he always seemed to love above all things. Why would he cause harm to a place that brought that to others. Before she asked, he told her about the past year or so of his life, about Christine. It seemed to bring him some sort of comfort telling someone about these things.

All in all she did not react much. She listened with her head resting in her hands, with her elbows propped on her knees. Erik noticed that she was not dressed very well, her dress was not much more than rags that barely hung on her.

"You don't seem to be fairing all too well yourself," he commented after he finished his story.

"Like you should be talking," she jabbed back. "I will go back along your path and see if I can find your mask for you. I know you will be wanting it before we go."

Erik shook his head. He knew it was not in the streets, and she would not be able to find it alone. It was still down in the cellars bellow the opera where he had left it.

"It's still down in the Opera House," he told her.

"So you really are the Ghost that has haunted the Opera House eh?" She still did not seem scared of him or what he had done.

It simply amazed him that she could stand to be around him. She had even gone so far as to, as it seemed, care for him a little. Or was she just paying back a debt she owed him from long ago.

"We will go back two nights from now," she stated closing her eyes seeming to want to sleep some. "You should be well enough by then."

He was not sure how that could be true. At the moment it felt as if a carriage with a team of ten horses had run him over. But oddly enough his fever seemed to have broken in no more than a few hours; it should have taken at least half a day for that to happen.

Erik noticed that Dianna's breathing had changed. She was sound asleep, leaving him alone with his thoughts. And in his memory, he remembered how she looked when she danced to his music. She seemed to be so happy when he played, it was one of the few times he ever saw her smile. And even now though she knew everything that had happened, she seemed to have small smile on her lips as she slept just inches away from him. And it did not take much longer for Erik to lay back and finally fall into a fitful sleep.


End file.
